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A TEAM APPROACH TO TEACHING FARM LEASES

Mary Sobba

Summary

With the current land prices, leasing farm land continues to be a common practice in farming. Recently, the shift has been from crop-share arrangements to cash leases. The number of requests for information has been an indicator of the need for educational training. A team of five agriculture business specialists worked together to take a traditional topic, update it and create an interesting and educational program. The end product was developing a program covering many aspects of leasing including current trends, how to legally terminate a farm lease, specific items to include in a lease, recreational leasing and important specifics in both crop and livestock share leases. This program was designed to be delivered by a team, using a combination of presentations, discussions on-site and written materials. The program was designed to be offered through a distance learning interactive tv network.

This program has been taught the past two years and the participation rate was much higher than anticipated. The participants have been both land owners and tenants, both seeking to increase their knowledge about leases. The age group has varied from young farmers just starting out to folks well past retirement age. An evaluation tool was used to gather feedback at the conclusion of the program. The feedback has been used to modify the current program. Curriculum, feedback and lessons learned will be shared in this session.

Details

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